Shivers!

The leaves of our next-door neighbors' aspen turn gold in the fall.

October 30, 2018

It's a cold snap! When I take Mark to work in the mornings, the temperature is anywhere between 18 and 23 degrees. I makes me all a-shiver, especially since my car's heater doesn't really warm up until we've gone at least three miles. On some days, the temperature only reaches a high of 35-36 degrees. There's always a beautiful, bright-blue, sunny sky with a few small, white clouds over our heads, but the air is chill and the gusting winds bite right through my jacket.

Before we left for our family vacation on Sunday, October 21st, the weather was still pretty nice, despite two early snowfalls. The deciduous trees in my yard not only had all their leaves intact, but the leaves were mostly still green. Then we were gone for eight days, and everything changed. 

It was already dark when we returned home on the night of October 28th, so it wasn't until the next morning that I got quite a surprise, looking out the living room window. What a difference eight days makes! Not only had all the leaves on my oak trees turned golden-brown, but many of them had already hit the ground, leaving bare patches on the branches. That was the quickest turning-of-the-leaves and leaf-dropping I'd ever experienced in our twenty-nine autumns here in the White Mountains!

The two small oaks in my front yard on October 30, 2018.

Which meant, of course, that it was time to get out the rakes. Fallen leaves signal the start of joyful family togetherness, with piles of leaves to play in, echoing sounds of teasing and laughter on the chilly air, and hot cocoa simmering on the stove for everyone to enjoy, along with s'mores prepared over the fire pit, at the end of a job well done. Right? To be honest, I doubt my children remember those piles of leaves and pine needles with much delight. It is a lot of hard work.

The same twin oaks, viewed from a different angle.

My property isn't exactly huge, only a little more than one-third of an acre, but it is covered with trees, including many giant pines and great old oaks. I love my trees. Deeply. Madly. Passionately. Nonetheless, it never fails to amaze me how thickly the leaves and pine needles can carpet the ground every year.

And I don't mean just once a year. Yes, for our deciduous oaks it happens only in the fall. That is, indeed, the most challenging cleanup. However, many people don't realize that evergreens shed their needles, too, and not only in autumn. Pine needles are actually the tree's "leaves," and they do eventually turn brown and drop off. The difference is, pine needles last longer than regular leaves (about three years for our ponderosa pines), and they don't all fall at the same time. Hence, the trees appear to be ever-green.

These two giant oaks are at the north side of my house,

right outside my home office. October 30, 2018

Pretty much any strong wind will knock the dead needles off the trees, which can happen any time of year, but the raking seems to be most needed in the spring (pre-fire-danger season) and the fall (pre-snow season). The problem has now become this: who's going to do it? Our children are adults now, living in their own homes and leading their own busy lives. Mark and I are capable of doing some of the work, but on a limited basis, thanks to problems with his back and feet, as well as my own back, hip, and knee issues. It's limiting and frustrating.

Back in April, a small army of teen boys from church tackled my yard as a service project, raking up needles, disposing of dead branches that had been removed, and hauling off a small pile of items that needed to go to the dump. (I blogged about them in May.) They did an awesome job and we were so grateful for their cheerful, hard work. Still, one cannot expect such charitable service on a regular basis.

While I pondered our dilemma, a fourteen-year-old girl posted an "ad" on our church Facebook page. She was earning money for the high school's Spanish Club trip to Peru this coming spring, and she invited interested parties to hire her to clean up their yards and haul away the leaves. That last part drew me in. Raking leaves is one thing, but trying to haul it all away now that we no longer have a truck is a huge issue. We can fill literally fifty or more leaf bags when we rake the entire yard, which we stack neatly against the fence and toss in the trash can every week, one or two bags at a time, until we finally break down and borrow a truck so we can finally be rid of them.

Our young hiree tackled the wide driveway first, clearing it nicely.

November 10, 2018

So I texted her and arranged to have her come when our oaks were finally bare of leaves. That day finally arrived late last week, and she came over on Saturday, getting right to work. She did a great job, working alone for most of the morning. I noticed that she used a leaf blower mounted on her back, backpack-style. Recently, I'd considered buying a leaf blower, but I wasn't sure how effective it would be against pine needles. I asked her about it, since it was obviously working for her, and she explained that it moved needles well, as long as they weren't too deep. If you raked (or blasted with a leaf blower) the yard twice a year, it worked fine. (Guess what I plan to purchase next spring!)

Here's the young lady & her dad, who arrived to help with his truck & huge trailer.

The twin oaks' branches are bare but, oddly, the apple tree at far right is still green.

Her father (I've known their family since this young lady, their firstborn, was a toddler) came by to help her finish up for the final two hours. He owns a very large trailer, and together they worked on loading the piles up for transport to the green waste station. I greatly admire this young lady's work ethic and her father's willingness to support her efforts. My yard looks amazing now. At least, until the winds of late spring begin to blow...

It's a done deal. Our yard looks wonderful on November 11, 2018.